UK Police and PRS Shut Down Karaoke Torrent Site

An anonymous reader writes with this news from Torrent Freak, from which he quotes: The City of London's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit and copyright and royalty group PRS for Music have teamed up for what appears to be a first-of-its-kind action. Arresting a 46-year-old man, this week police shut down one of the Internet's few karaoke-focused BitTorrent trackers. While at some stages wildly popular in the East, to most in the West a night at a karaoke bar is probably more closely associated with too many beers and individuals belting out classics wearing the aural equivalent of beer goggles. The pastime is considered by some as a bit of a joke but karaoke is big business. According to the people behind the web-based Playstation software SingOn, the global karaoke market could be worth as much as $10 billion.

Comments

Thank God Scotland yard

[Cafe Alpha]

takes agents off of less important subjects like preventing the next bus bombing to arrest despicable criminals who share unlicensed lyrics!

Re:Thank God Scotland yard

[Cafe Alpha]

Two, some forms of IP crime are used to fund terrorism.

Do you really believe that there is a single person who reads this site who is dumb enough to believe that? Even one?

Re:Thank God Scotland yard

[Anonymous Coward]

NO IP crime is not used to fund terrorism. That is just complete BS that the MPAA came up with to have politicians say to help get attention. It was also quickly dropped once someone asked for real numbers. There are no huge operations even in china or india where no IP is safe. In some countries like Russia, it is organized but only in the sense everyone pays for protection there. In general it is just some guy making some quick bucks and that is IF he is selling copies on the street. And he likely torrented them now instead of pirating them himself. Almost all piracy is done for free.

Re:Thank God Scotland yard

[Cafe Alpha]

I paid for the suicide bomb with "Rocky Mountain High" and "My way!"

Re: Thank God Scotland yard

[geekmux]

Since you stupid nerds believe your laughable "skills" may avail you against government/corporate surveillance, I'd say yes.

Funny how that same government is busy trying to hire those nerds and their "laughable" skills.

You know, because we apparently suck so bad, and government of course must have the most skilled and elite at their disposal. After all, their security rating year after year is A-plus. Top notch work indeed, keeping all those surveillance tactics a secret too. Oh, and so impressive how they've managed to keep our Rights intact as well while doing all of this. I mean, nothing they do would be considered illegal, now would it? Because that would be wrong, and we nerds might get the idea that breaking the law is somehow the right thing to do.

It doesn't take skills to fight government/corporate surveillance. It merely takes someone in charge with a fucking backbone to call out the lawbreakers, and do something about it to enforce the laws we have today.

Re:Thank God Scotland yard

[Anonymous Coward]

Two, some forms of IP crime are used to fund terrorism.

Do you really believe that there is a single person who reads this site who is dumb enough to believe that? Even one?

Don't be so grumpy, he has a point. You have clearly never heard a drunk Japanes tourist singing Elvis Presley songs at the top of his voice. If you had you'd know that for all intents and purposes Karaoke is indeed a form of terrorism.

Re:Thank God Scotland yard

[Anne Thwacks]

Ye. The threat of yet another karaoke version of "My Way" would definitely drive most normal people to suicide-bombing!

What?

[symes]

$10B?! I find this utterly staggering. Mostly because I cannot imagine karaoke being that popular. Second, because most of this, as far as I know, happens in bars. Who would buy/download karaoke for personal use? What is more, why is this a target for the police when there are plenty of other, and larger, trackers out there? Nothing in this story makes any sense.

Re:What?

[Cafe Alpha]

They're no doubt counting every drink and whore paid for in every karaoke providing bar or restaurant in Asia...
Of course those bars probably don't do Karaoke all day, but they sell drinks or food all day. In other words the number is bullshit.

You know, that's how you always excuse draconian laws, by lying.

Re:What?

[sumdumass]

You have to understand that the licensing for these kind of performances is big because they hit you twice. First, if you were to purchase an officially licensed karaoke track or a normal song track for DJing between singers, you will be paying between $3 and $4 US for each new song. But then you also need a public performance license on top of that. So when they figure the 10 billion value, they are probably thinking the licensing costs and increased unit costs. Technically, you aren't supposed to be able to go to walmart and pick a CD out of the bargain bin and play it at a bar or allow people to sing over top of it. You need to pay more because they have so much money, it gets lonesome and needs more to keep it company or something.

I'm with ya on actually experiencing it. I don't know how many people who couldn't carry a tune if you put it in a basket and duct taped it to their hand, have ruined my night because the karaoke decided to go longer then scheduled and I showed up a bit early. But every once in a while, you do find a gem in the mix who does a decent enough job or even outshines the original version of the song. In my neck of the woods, that is few and far in between and generally relies in me drinking a 6 pack before I notice them.

Re:What?

[NickFortune]

$10B?! I find this utterly staggering.

The weasel words here are "could be worth as much as..."

So, by the same token, my cat's old scratching post could be worth as much as 27 trillion dollars on the open market. I mean the probabilities are strongly weighted towards zero, but with the right buyer it could be worth that. I just need to find an insane trillionaire is all :)

Add to that the fact this is all just someone's opinion ("according to the people behind the web-based Playstation software SingOn") and basically it's a non-statement containing zero information.

Rte:Thank God Scotland yard

[Anonymous Coward]

City of London Police are not Scotland Yard. They are a small police force covering the Square Mile (City of London) and specialised in investigating financial crime. They are a completely separate force from the Metropolitan Police, based at Scotland Yard in Westminster, and covering the rest of metropolitan London.

Re:Rte:Thank God Scotland yard

[AmiMoJo]

City of London Police are basically a private, corporate police unit. The City of London is strange place, where corporations have the majority of votes in elections. The police basically work for corporate interests, but have all the powers of a normal police force. They abuse this by putting pressure on people to stop doing perfectly legal, lawful activities that the corporations dislike.

It's disgusting and an affront to democracy and justice.

Really?

[nospam007]

What's next? Some razzias to throw grannies in jail, who 'illegally' use Disney figures on their embroidering machines for the little ones?

Re:Really?

[Mashiki]

Don't give them ideas.

Fun story, I knew a guy who lived through the great depression. He and his wife made ends meet, by making Disney character windmills and selling them on the street corner. These days, they'd likely be tossed in prison and have a fine.

Justice

[Wowsers]

The police going after easy targets, while the city police protect criminal banks who have done well documented money laundering for Mexican drug cartels by the city's own banks. If you do crime, do it big, or give police backhanders to look the other way.

Re:Arrested him for WHAT?

[TheReaperD]

What would your arguments be from a songmaker perspective?

Time to join the dinosaurs and buggy whip makers.

"Police"?

[CanEHdian]

TF keeps calling them "police" so they keep answering their inquiries. We're talking here about "The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London" (source: Wikipedia). Part of this is PIPCU, which is funded with taxpayer money.

"Since at least 2011 the BPI (= the british branch/version of RIAA, C.) had built close ties with the City of London Police's National Fraud Intelligence Bureau as well as advertising agencies to remove payment channels from pirate sites. The dedicated unit itself was first announced in December 2012 by Vince Cable MP. It was funded by £2.5m over two years of public money via the Intellectual Property Office and became operational in September 2013. In April 2014 Mike Weatherley, the Prime Minister's Intellectual Property Advisor called on the Prime Minister to commit to the permanent funding of the unit to extend its existence beyond 2015. In October 2014 additional funding was revived to operate until 2017."

Don't be as dependent on scraps like TF and stop referring to them as "City of London Police" which might to the ininitiated be the metropolitan police of the British capital, while in fact it's some corporate task force that abuses the old City situation to give themselves public powers. Think of them like a Omni Consumer Products enforcement group, by Big Business, for Big Business, and paid for by the taxpayer. Can it get any better?